British Columbia

Fate of Vancouver musician's long-lost song highlights growing problem of streaming fraud

A Vancouver musician suspects she's the victim of streaming fraud, which experts say is a growing concern for streaming platforms, music distributors and artists.

Fake versions of song appeared on apps, in an example of fraud that siphons $2B US a year, B.C. company says

Jon Azpiri · CBC News(Shannon Eckstein)

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Musician Paula Toledo recently learned one of her songs had found an audience through an unlikely source — bootleg Russian DVDs. But she didn't expect it would lead to a fake version of it streaming online.

Toledo recorded How Longin the 2000s but never released it commercially. It somehow ended up on pirated DVDs, and caught the ears of a small circle of fans, who spent years trying to determine the song's provenance.

Some created tribute videos for How Long that included images of teddy bears. After 16 years of searching, fans on Reddit found Toledo in Vancouver back in December.

Following the discovery, Toledo uploaded How Longto Bandcamp, a music distribution platform, with all proceeds going to charity. She then added it to music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, using an independent digital music distribution service as a middleman. 

But Reddit users soon notified her that a duplicate version of How Long had appeared on streaming services, she says.

WATCH | International search for mystery singer ends in Vancouver 

International search for mystery singer ends in Vancouver

2 months agoDuration 9:43About 16 years ago, a mystery song with no known singer or writer somehow captured the attention of a group of Reddit users. The group's sleuthing eventually led them to Vancouver's Paula Toledo. Gloria Macarenko speaks to Toledo and the moderator of the Reddit group about the search and the singer.

"So they took my song, the exact song, and put new artwork on it with a teddy bear," Toledo said.

The bogus version created confusion, she says, and her version was removed from streaming services.

Toledo suspects her song fell victim to streaming fraud, which experts say is a growing concern for streaming platforms, music distributors and artists.

"It's not lost on me that the song was pirated and it was placed in a Russian bootleg DVD … Then it was found and literally weeks after it got pirated again," Toledo said.

"It's so unfortunate."